Improvement in hoop-skirts



UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

O. RpBUR-NHAM, OFNEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPRVEM ENT IN HOOP-SKIRTS.A

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,737, dated March 25, 1862.

T0 all whom t may concern:

Beit known that I, O. R. BURNHAM, of the city, county, and State of New York,-have invented a new and useful Improvement in Hoop-Skirts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a side view of a skirt with my improvement. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken at the intersection of one of the hoops and suspending-tapes, exhibiting the parts larger than natural size. Fig. 3 is a face view of a portion of one ofthe hoops on a scale corresponding with Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one'of the clasps for securingthe hoops to the suspending-tapes.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

This invention consists in the construction ofskirt-hoops each of two or more narrow strips of steel or other metal arranged edge to edge and united by braiding or weaving them together with cotton or other fibrous material, by which construction several important advantages are obtained, to wit: first, facility is afforded for inserting the clasps through the hoop; second, the hoops are rendered more uniformly elastic and less liable to get out of shape, for any soft place in one of the strips will ,bev strengthened by the adjacent parts of the other or others, it being very improbable that soft portions of two strips will be presented at the same part of a hoop; third, the hoops, while being stiff and elastic in a horizontal direction, are less stiff in a vertical direction, and so less liable to stick up when the wearer sits down.

It also consists in a certain combination of such hoops with tapes yor straps and metallic clasps, by which a very strong and durable skirt is produced.

In the example ot' my invention represented in the drawings, the hoops A Aare composed each of three narrow strips of fiat steel set edge to edge and woven together, the weaving being eiiected by arranging the said straps in the loom as a portion-of a warp with Warp-yarns of cotton orotheriibrous substancebetween them, and operating with a filling of fibrous yarn,

the two outer strips ct a c. in the manner` shown in Fio. 2.

The clasps B B are made of tinplate or other sheet metal with pointed prongs which pass easily through the suspending tapes or straps and through the iibrous covering of the strips a a n, and are afterward bent toward each other over the middle strip, as shown in Fig. 2. p

I prefer always to have the suspending tapes or straps woven double and open in those parts of it where the hoops are to be at' tached, so that the hoops may be inserted through them in the manner shown in Fig. 2, and woven single between these parts. The prongs of the clasps pass through the tapes or straps on both sides of the hoops. p f

vVhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The construction of skirt-hoops of strips of steel or other metal arranged edge to edge and woven or braided together with ibrous material, so that each hoop shall be composed of two or more strips, substantially as herein specified.

2. The combination, in a skirt, of tapes or straps C C, woven double at the places where the hoops are connected and single between those parts, hoops which are composed each of two or more strips of steel united by weaving or braiding, as described, and are inserted through the double port-ions ot' the straps, and metallic clasps passing through both the tapes or straps and the hoops, all as herein specifiedv O. It. BURNHAM.

Vitnesses:

EDWARD W. HoDcsoN, JAMES LAIRD. 

